I ran across this book and its sequels, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard (and there are two more: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows and Speaking from Among the Bones) by reading an article in the The New York Times on the author who started writing when he was in his 70s. His character is an 11 year-old girl growing up on the family estate in England after the second world war, so the date is 1950 — quite a ways ago.

I was interested because Alan Bradley (the author) explained that Flavia just appeared in the middle of another book and demanded that he write her books. Good characters are like that although I will also give kudos to her perfectly dreadful older sisters.

Anyway, if you like murder mysteries and 11 year-old girls who are intrigued with poisons, then you won’t go wrong with Flavia de Luce!

I recently finished Dan Bucatinsky’s Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? and I thoroughly loved it. I think I picked it up because Neil Patrik Harris recommended it although the title itself is enough to merit a look see.

Parenting is hard, relationships are hard and Mr. Bucatinsky makes it clear that they are no easier just because both partners are of the same sex — indeed it sometimes makes things harder.

Mr. Bucatinsky (I’ll start calling him “Dan” when I meet him and he says to do so) hits on the notion of “maternal” or as he sometimes prefers “parental” — the idea that one parent is seen by the children as the principal nurturer. I found that very interesting because I think there’s a lot of truth to it. I think we all lose a lot by not recognizing that this nurturing nature is not sex-linked or limited.

I think that for some people kids are more often endlessly fascinating while for others they are more often endlessly frustrating. (Which is not to say that those “fascinated” don’t get frustrated and those “frustrated” don’t get fascinated.)

He also talks a bit — and tastefully — about some of the dilemmas that parenthood brings. I was particuarly amused to hear that he, too, had that one panicked moment when his daughter was delayed in a public restroom, the panic of wondering if the child’s been abducted, had a major potty disaster or has simply fallen asleep — and what to do about it — is still the source of nightmares (mine was at Universal Studio Tours).

His comments on parents and his sotte voce comments on male/female attire make me realize that we may be on the bring, as a society, of a great new dialog where us poor straight guys might start seeing the far more attuned gay community as a resource — people we can talk to about fashion and meeitng women without fear of ostracism or competition.

Yay! I’ve just seen in Locus that Triptych by J.M. Frey has placed on the Lambda Awards Shortlist. (See here for full details.)

I think Triptych is an awesome book and one of the few books I’ve blurbed to date. This is what I said:

“It’s a very impressive first novel and if Ms. Frey continues to do with science fiction what she’s done in this book she might single-handedly be credited with reviving the entire genre. Bravo! Encore, encore!”